Install AIStor

Install on Kubernetes

Install on OpenShift

Install using a private container registry

Deploy AIStor using images stored in your own private container registry

Install in a fully airgapped environment

Deploy AIStor to an airgapped environment

The guides in this section provide instructions for deploying AIStor onto Kubernetes infrastructure. Installation should not be considered finished until you have completed the tutorials to enable network encryption and server-side-encryption.

Production hardware recommendations

When selecting hardware for your AIStor Server implementation, take into account the following factors:

Expected amount of data to store at launch and growth in data storage for the next two years for total drive size
Expected growth in size of data for at least the next two years
Number of objects by average object size
Average retention time of data in years
Number of sites to be deployed
Number of expected buckets
Failure tolerance for drives and nodes

There is no exact formula useful for all situations. Consider your own needs for the above and create a architecture review discussion in SUBNET to discuss with MinIO engineers and field architects.

Hardware consistency

AIStor, like any distributed system, benefits from selecting identical configurations for all nodes in a given server pool. Ensure a consistent selection of hardware (CPU, memory, motherboard, storage adapters) and software (operating system, kernel settings, system services) across pool nodes.

Deployments may exhibit unpredictable performance if nodes have varying hardware or software configurations.

Checklist

The following checklist follows MinIO’s Recommended Configuration for production deployments. The provided guidance is intended as a baseline and cannot replace SUBNET Performance Diagnostics, Architecture Reviews, and direct-to-engineering support.

	Description	Recommended
☐	Persistent volumes backed by adequate storage media.	8+ Persistent Volumes
☐	High speed network infrastructure.	100GbE
☐	Server-grade CPUs with support for modern SIMD instructions (AVX-512), such as Intel® Xeon® Scalable or better.	16+ vCPU per node
☐	Available memory to meet or exceed per-server usage by a reasonable buffer.	128GB+ of available memory per node

While AIStor may run on less than the recommended hardware, any potential cost savings come at the risk of decreased reliability, performance, or overall functionality.

Required and optional images

MinIO provides nine images for installing AIStor with Helm.

Three of the images are required. The other six images provide optional services. Install any or all of the additional images as required.

Required images

AIStor Object Store requires the following images:

Image	Repository URL
operator	quay.io/minio/aistor/operator?tab=tags
minio	quay.io/minio/aistor/minio?tab=tags
minio-sidecar	quay.io/minio/aistor/minio-sidecar?tab=tags

Optional images

The following images are also available to enable specific features in AIStor.

Image	Usage	Repository URL
kes	Server-side encryption with KES	quay.io/minio/aistor/kes?tab=tags
kes-sidecar	Server-side encryption with KES	quay.io/minio/aistor/kes-sidecar?tab=tags
mc	Automating admin jobs	quay.io/minio/aistor/mc?tab=tags
aihub	Storing AI models and datasets	quay.io/minio/aistor/aihub?tab=tags
prompt	Using AI to query objects	quay.io/minio/aistor/prompt?tab=tags
warp	Performing benchmark tests	quay.io/minio/warp?tab=tags

If you plan to use optional features such as server-side encryption (KES), AI capabilities (AI Hub, Prompt), automation (mc), or benchmarking (warp), you must copy those optional images during the external preparation phase. Review the optional images table and copy all images for features you intend to use.

Optimizing performance

The following table shows areas that have the greatest impact on AIStor performance, listed in order of importance.

Prioritize securing the necessary components for each of these areas before focusing on other hardware resources, such as compute-related constraints.

Infrastructure segment	Description
Network Infrastructure	Insufficient or limited throughput constrains performance
Storage Controller	Old firmware, limited throughput, or failing hardware constrains performance and affects reliability
Storage (Drive)	Old firmware, or slow/aging/failing hardware constrains performance and affects reliability

Additional recommendations

For other requirements, including for networking and memory, see recommended and system requirements.

For reviewing your existing hardware with tests, see recommended hardware tests.